Friday, 22 January 2016

This is what I've spent a large part of my writing time on for the last two years – a 'birding memoir', in which I talk about trying to see Britain's greatest avian spectacles, and how they're almost without exception within easy reach of everyone with even the most casual interest in wildlife. There's also a lot of rambling about history, poetry, and football.

It will be published by Rider Books at the beginning of April, and I apologise in advance for the fact that you're going to hear a lot about it on here over the next couple of years. If birds aren't your thing, move along quietly and there'll be some poetry to follow.

Tuesday, 19 January 2016

Very interesting blog piece from Charles Boyle here, on the current debate about literary festivals paying (and not paying) writers. It is, of course, a very complicated subject. I'd guess many writers find it difficult to say no to unpaid readings and appearances even if they do feel strongly that they should be paid, but equally I'm not sure if any of the festivals are making a great deal of money out of the whole thing. One to discuss at length.

Friday, 15 January 2016

I've been very poor at updating things around here just lately, but for now it's worth highlighting this event, on Monday night - as always, it's worth making the effort to get along to. Open mic slots will be available, and Mark Goodwin always reads well. It all starts at 7.30pm, and entry is free.

Wednesday, 6 January 2016

Birmingham-based Haunted House Theatre will be touring the
Midlands with a new verse play about free schools.

Free for All,
written in iambic pentameter, is a play by University of Birmingham PhD student
Richard O'Brien, a prize-winning poet who is researching if poetry can still
work in the theatre for modern audiences.

Following a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe, the show
tours to Nottingham Contemporary (Jan 27th), Hansom Hall, Leicester (Jan 28th)
and mac Birmingham (Jan 29th). Actors have been cast from the finest of the
region's professionally-trained talent.

Richard said: “I'm especially excited to come to Leicester,
the birthplace of Joe Orton and resting place of Richard III, with a show
mixing Shakespearean and modern theatrical traditions. With King Charles III playing
at the Curve, Leicester is getting two modern verse plays in one week!”

“For a long time, it would be unusual to go to the theatre
and not hear poetry. Even today, Shakespeare is the world's most performed
playwright, but I think poetry in the theatre is something we've become very
suspicious of. Free for All is an attempt to show that verse on stage can still
speak to people now.”

Director Rebecca Martin expects the play to ruffle a few
feathers: “Free schools are one of the most controversial topics of the day.
Since the General Election, all parties and voters have been asking tough
questions about privilege. How can education give every child an equal chance? Free
for All doesn't offer one answer, but Richard's characters have very strong
opinions on both sides.”

Martin was a co-founder of pantsguys productions, an Australian
company which won multiple Sydney Theatre Awards. She said her first UK company
was created with one thing in mind: “We set up Haunted House Theatre to revive
a kind of theatre where the power of language can make anything happen.”

Richard O’Brien was a winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the
Year Award in 2006 and 2007, and the 2015 London Book Fair Poetry Prize. Andrew
McMillan describes him as ‘one of the strongest poets of his generation’. He is
working on a practice-led PhD on Shakespeare and the development of verse
drama, funded by the Midlands3Cities Doctoral Training Partnership, and lives
in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter.

The show is coming to Nottingham Contemporary on Jan 27th
(free – book here),
Leicester's Hansom Hall on Jan 28th (tickets here),
and Birmingham mac on Jan 29th (tickets here). Alongside the
production, Haunted House will offer talkback sessions and workshops on this
little-known field for actors, writers and directors. Further discussion of the
ideas behind the production can be found here.

A Sky Full Of Birds

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Available from Nine Arches Press

ABOUT ME

I live in Southam, England, and write (and read lots of) poetry. My prose memoir, A Sky Full Of Birds, is out now from Rider Books. My poetry collection, The Elephant Tests, is available from Nine Arches Press. My previous collection, hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica, was published by Nine Arches in 2010. My first collection, Troy Town, was published in March 2008 by Arrowhead Press, and my chapbook, Making The Most Of The Light, was published in 2005 by Happenstance Press.

hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica

PUBLISHED MARCH 1, 2008

ABOUT THAT TITLE

Poly-Olbion was a vast poem describing the topography, traditions and history of England and Wales, written by Michael Drayton, a friend of Shakespeare. It ran to 15,000 lines of iambic hexameter, and he intended to extend it to include Scotland, but never got that far. Drayton didn't quite pass into obscurity, but if he's remembered now, it's generally for his much-anthologised sonnet, the wonderful "Since there's no help, come let us kiss and part". Anyway, I've always had a soft spot for Drayton, because he was born and raised about 15 miles from here in Polesworth (and because of that sonnet), and thought his now-ignored mega-poem might provide a good name for a blog that will range far and wide, wittering aimlessly and incessantly about whatever catches my eye. I promise not to write it in iambic hexameter, though.